The choices for Crawley

Duncan Crow - Conservative group leader, Crawley Borough Council

The general election is now only six weeks away and the choices facing us both in Crawley and nationwide are becoming increasingly apparent.

There will also be local council elections on the same day as the general election and the choices in the local elections reflect the national picture in policy terms.

The first obvious choice that we in Crawley will be making is deciding who will be the next Prime Minister. It can only be either the leader of the Conservatives or Labour who leads our country after the election - a clear choice between David Cameron and Ed Miliband. However, it appears that Labour are embarrassed by their leader as I’ve seen several Labour leaflets in Crawley delivered by Royal Mail and not one of them mentions Ed Miliband at all. It feels like Labour wants Crawley people to vote Labour but without us realising that doing so will make Ed Miliband Prime Minister.

To make the choice of Prime Minister, we have the choice as to who to elect as Crawley’s MP. Again, this is the same two-horse race between Conservative and Labour with the winner to become Crawley’s MP having a direct impact on who becomes Prime Minister. While I may not be able to predict which one of either the Conservative or Labour candidate will be Crawley’s next MP, I can say with absolute certainty that it will not be UKIP, who came in 5th place last time in Crawley with only 2.7% of the vote.

The choice with policy is equally clear. There is stability, growth, jobs, economic competency and an EU referendum with the Conservatives; or chaos, recession, unemployment, reckless borrowing and Alex Salmond pulling Ed Miliband’s strings under Labour.

Some national differences of policy between the two parties are reflected on Crawley Borough Council in the local elections. Just last month, the Conservative Group proposed a balanced budget living within Crawley’s means and a Council Tax freeze for next year. Sadly, Labour voted to refuse this, showing a local example as to why Labour still can’t be trusted with the public finances.